US lawmakers vote to end US support for war in Yemen

In rebuke of Trump’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, resolution would force administration to withdraw US troops

Asserting congressional authority over war-making powers, the US House of Representatives approved a resolution Wednesday that would force the Trump administration to withdraw US troops from involvement in Yemen, in a rebuke of Donald Trump’s alliance with the Saudi-led coalition behind the military intervention.

Lawmakers in both parties are increasingly uneasy over the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and are skeptical of the US partnership with that coalition, especially in light of Saudi Arabia’s role in the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the royal family.

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Federal judge finds Manafort lied to Mueller

Former Trump aide breached plea deal by making false statements about dealings with alleged Russian operative

Paul Manafort lied about his interactions with an alleged Russian intelligence operative even after agreeing to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s inquiry, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Manafort, Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman, was found to have breached his plea deal by making false statements to the special counsel’s team, the FBI and a grand jury about his dealings with Konstantin Kilimnik.

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Ryan Adams: multiple women accuse singer of emotional abuse, report says

Seven women allege musician ‘dangled career opportunities’ while sexually pursuing female artists, New York Times reports

Multiple women have accused singer-songwriter Ryan Adams of emotional and verbal abuse and harassment, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Seven women and more than a dozen associates of Adams described a “pattern of manipulative behavior in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex”, the New York Times wrote. The story included allegations of a young female fan who said she had an online relationship with the singer when she was 15 and 16 years old, which included “graphic texting” and a video call in which Adams “exposed himself during phone sex”.

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Serial killer’s drawings of alleged victims released by FBI

Agency hopes sketches by Samuel Little, who has confessed to killing 90 women, may help solve dozens of homicides

The FBI has released sketches made by a serial killer of his alleged victims, in the hope that they may help solve dozens of unsolved homicides.

The agency released the drawings and other information on a string of cold-case homicides that investigators say Samuel Little has admitted to having carried out.

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Shutdown deal: Republicans urge Trump to accept as House heads to vote

Donald Trump has suggested he is open to a compromise border security measure that would avert another US government shutdown as the House pushed toward a vote on the agreement before the funding deadline expires on Friday.

Republicans and Democrats have broadly embraced the proposed legislation, but have cautioned that they will wait to see the final text of the bill, which includes far less funding than Trump initially sought for his wall along the border with Mexico.

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Nasa confirms Mars rover Opportunity is dead

Robot the size of a golf buggy has sent data to Earth for 15 years but fell silent eight months ago and Nasa says mission is complete

Nasa declared the 15-year mission of the veteran Mars rover Opportunity finally over on Wednesday, crediting the robot as having “transformed our understanding of our planet”.

The golf buggy-sized vehicle last made contact with Earth eight months ago, after being caught in a global dust storm.

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Former US air force officer charged with spying for Iran

Monica Witt, who defected in 2013, worked as a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for more than 10 years

A former US air force intelligence officer who defected to Iran in 2013 has been charged with espionage, giving away the identity of a US agent and other secrets.

Monica Witt, aged 39, was a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for the US air force for more than 10 years before working as an intelligence analyst for the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for five months in 2008 and doing other private sector work.

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Will El Chapo’s conviction change anything in the drug trade?

The nearly half a century old ‘war on drugs’ shows no sign of ending, and neither does the illegal drug trade

Standing on the steps of the Brooklyn courthouse amid flurries of sleet and snow, US attorney Richard Donoghue hailed the conviction of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán as a famous victory in America’s longest conflict.

“There are those who say the war on drugs is not worth fighting. Those people are wrong,” he said.

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‘It was hell’: Parkland massacre survivor sets focus on healing … and soccer

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas student was hailed as a hero for saving 20 students, but the teen only wants the freedom of playing on the field

When the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school commandeered the streets of Washington DC to march for their lives last year, Anthony Borges was still in a Florida hospital, fighting for his.

The soft-spoken 15-year-old, then a freshman at the school in Parkland, had been shot five times during the onslaught of violence on 14 February 2018, which left 17 students and teachers dead.

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Six California police officers fire shots at rapper asleep in car, killing him

Family of Willie McCoy allege racial profiling after Vallejo police fire ‘multiple rounds’ at man

California police officers fatally shot a 20-year-old rapper who was sleeping in his car outside a Taco Bell, authorities said.

Six Vallejo officers fired “multiple rounds” at the man, identified by family as Willie McCoy, police said. McCoy had a handgun on him when the officers fired out of “fear for their own safety” on Saturday night, according to the department. The family of McCoy, whose rapper name was Willie Bo, said Tuesday that police had racially profiled the young black man and that there was no justification for using deadly force against someone who was sleeping and not a threat.

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UK foreign secretary condemns attack on BBC cameraman at Trump rally

A man was seen shoving BBC cameraman Ron Skeans before being pulled away, according to a BBC video

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned an attack on a BBC cameraman by a supporter of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas.

Asked whether it was acceptable for Trump to whip up his fans to the point that a cameraman was attacked, Hunt told Sky News: “It is never acceptable when journalists and cameramen are attacked just for doing their job.“

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Trump ‘unhappy’ with new shutdown deal – live updates

Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, is at risk of seeing one of his biggest initiatives in office be overturned.

Hogan, who has been mooted as potential primary opponent of Donald Trump, decreed that public schools in the Old Line State couldn’t open until Labor Day. However, the Maryland general assembly is poised to overturn that through veto-proof legislation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that the state would not move forward on a controversial and hugely expensive project to link San Francisco and Los Angeles via high speed rail.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom abandoning plan for high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, says too costly.

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Trump administration still separating families at border, advocates say

Annunciation House shelter still receives calls each week about new cases of separations in El Paso, legal coordinator said

The Trump administration is still tearing young children away from their parents when they cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully, despite formally ending the policy of family separations last summer, according to immigration advocates in Texas.

Related: 'Inexplicable cruelty': US government sued over family separations at border

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El Chapo trial: Mexican drug cartel boss found guilty

Joaquín Guzmán, 61, could spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted following three-month New York trial

The notorious cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been found guilty of 10 counts of drug trafficking, at the end of a three-month New York trial that featured dramatic testimony of prison escapes, gruesome killings and million-dollar political payoffs.

Related: Behind the El Chapo trial: what's been left unsaid in a New York courtroom

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European powers to present cool front at Warsaw summit

Lack of participation at Middle East event reflects anger over US policy on Iran and Syria

Key European powers will offer only limited participation in a high-profile Trump administration summit on the Middle East starting on Wednesday, reflecting their growing anger over unilateral US policymaking on Iran and Syria.

The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will leave the Warsaw summit early, pleading Brexit Commons business, while France is sending a civil servant and Germany its junior foreign minister.

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‘Inexplicable cruelty’: US government sued over family separations at border

Eight immigrant families seek $6m each for children’s lasting trauma of Trump administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy

Lawyers for eight immigrant families separated under Trump administration policy have filed claims against the US government, demanding $6m each in damages for what they describe as “inexplicable cruelty” and lasting trauma.

Related: US family separation crisis – in pictures

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Democrats and Republicans in last-ditch attempt to avert shutdown – live

As President Trump prepared to speak at the border Monday in another expected call for a wall to curtail illegal immigration, Governor Gavin Newsom defended his decision to withdraw national guardsmen from the California-Mexico border, saying that “this whole border issue is manufactured.”

We’re live with @GavinNewsom as he discusses moving @theCAguard personnel from the border & redeploying them to focus on the actual threats California faces, not the White House’s manufactured crisis. #CaliforniaForAll https://t.co/bcd5KJB0xB

Cliff Sims, the former White House communications aide who wrote a tell-all about life working for President Trump, is suing the president, alleging that he used his campaign organization to selectively enforce nondisclosure agreements to silence or punish former employees, the New York Times is reporting.

Mr. Sims was a White House aide from the beginning of the administration. But it was the campaign organization that filed an arbitration claim against him last week, accusing him of violating the nondisclosure agreement he signed with it during the 2016 presidential race with the publication of his book, “Team of Vipers,” last month.

The White House had dozens of people sign such agreements at the beginning of the president’s term. But those agreements are widely seen as likely unenforceable. In the suit, Mr. Sims says he does not recall whether he signed one when he came to the White House.

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Ilhan Omar apologizes after being accused of using ‘antisemitic tropes’

Congresswoman ‘unequivocally apologized’ after suggesting Republican support for Israel was fueled by financial incentives

The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar “unequivocally” apologized on Monday for comments that suggested American support for Israel was fueled by political donations from a pro-Israel lobby group – a remark condemned by House Democratic leaders for raising “antisemitic tropes and prejudicial accusations”.

“Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter. “My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.”

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‘Germs are not a real thing’: Fox News host says he hasn’t washed hands in 10 years

Pete Hegseth denies existence of germs, saying: ‘I can’t see them, therefore they’re not real’

Donald Trump’s favourite TV show, Fox & Friends, has a reputation for giving airtime to conspiracy theories that benefit the White House agenda. But host Pete Hegseth may now have managed to upset the famously germaphobic president – by revealing that he has not washed his hands in a decade.

Related: Trump and the Fox & Friends show. Think ego, not news

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